Sunday Morning Book Thread - 5-31-2026 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (just in time for summer!). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

PIC NOTE

On the southeast coast of Tierra Del Fuego, is a tiny little literary outpost called Biblioteca del Refugio de Puerto Español. I discovered it purely by chance.

I was reading The Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and I used Google Maps to scout out the physical location where the events in the novel take place, which is a fictional island amongst the Wollaston Islands off the coast of Tierra Del Fuego. I was just zooming around the area when I noticed the world "biblioteca" tagged on a small building on the coast, miles from anywhere else. Strange place to put a bookshop/library.

It seems to be labor of love by the man in the photo above. He is justifiably proud of the work he's put into creating a library out here in the middle of nowhere. It may be the southernmost public library on the planet.

Who is this man? What would drive him to live alone out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing but his books to keep him company? Seeing a picture like this can be a seed for a short story...What do YOU imagine his life is like out here? What secrets is he hiding? What is his motivation?

By a strange coincidence, he bears a striking resemblance to a professor who works at the same university where I work...That right there could germinate a story about two brothers who are estranged, but somehow have to find a way to reconcile their differences to resolve a conflict...

FEATURED MORON REVIEW [OrangeEnt]

Read "Johnny Carson," by Henry Bushkin, Carson's long-time "consigliere" as Johnny put it. Bushkin details his interactions with the Tonight Show legend, from his first meeting through his firing near the end of Carson's reign over late night.

Bushkin, who was only twenty-seven when Johnny hired him as his lawyer, said this about the man: "...he was endlessly witty and enormously fun to be around...and he could also be the nastiest son of a bitch on earth." We've heard insinuations about Johnny through plenty of videos, but this first-person account definitely sets you back on your heels when you see how often and how quickly Carson could change from generous and friendly to an insulting monster to his friends and family members.

Complex, because of his upbringing with a mother who never had much good to say about her son, he also seemed aloof from his own children. Johnny didn't like to be "volunteered" for anything. It made him angry when any of his wives or friends put him on the spot for a fundraiser or social event. He was upset at the Reagan inaugural when things didn't go his way. He would blow up and threaten to leave an event and never return multiple times.

We get to see backstage dealings with co-workers and Johnny's many married lives. He cheated on each of his four wives. The result of fame? Maybe, but it should be a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to be in show business. Bushkin recounts how he, Johnny, and a couple of other men broke into wife number two's love nest with someone who turned out to be Frank Gifford. We see woman after woman come into Johnny's life and exit soon after. Some, the next night. It even affected Buskin's life as well. He started engaging in the same things Carson did, and it cost him his marriage as well.

Although the book is about his life with Johnny, Bushkin's book is also about him. We see him change from the star-struck young lawyer into a highly skilled attorney and businessman. He did everything for Johnny: played tennis every day, made deals for him, gave him blunt advice when things started going wrong, and was an all-around confidant. There are some names dropped by Bushkin of women he had affairs with, such as Joyce DeWitt and Mary Hart.

All in all, an interesting look into the life of someone we thought we knew because we saw him nearly every weeknight. Recommended if you like Hollywood television history. The book is available on the Internet Archive.

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT READ ROBERT JORDAN'S The Eye of the World

A couple of weeks ago, the following comment caught my eye:

Let's see....well on my vacation I read and finished "Robert Jordan's" Eye of the World. This might be the best fantasy novel I've read.

I realize its the first book in a series, a series with a lot of high points and a lot of low points. Still, it is probably the peak of doorstopper fantasy since GRRM is incapable of finishing Game of Thrones.

But the first book, Eye of the World, is an excellent standalone story. It does not require sequels though it of course HEAVILY sets up a massive number of events to follow. But you can read the first book and be happy , especially if you have read the entire series or have tried to and got bored around book 7 or so.

Highly endorsed to all fans of epic Fantasy.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo at May 17, 2026 10:13 AM (xcxpd)

Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World has morphed into a highly divisive subject among fans of epic fantasy. Some, like Mark Andrew Edwards and myself, absolutely love this book. Full disclosure: Like Mark, I consider this book to be one of the best epic fantasy novels ever written. Far, far better than anything George R.R. Martin has ever written.

In the interests of satisfying my own curiosity, I asked Grok to share the five most common criticisms of The Eye of the World. Let's go through them and see how well they hold up under scrutiny.

1. Heavy Tolkien Derivative / Lack of Originality

Many readers and critics note that the book closely mirrors The Lord of the Rings in structure and elements: a rural farmboy (Rand ~ Frodo) pulled into adventure, a wise mentor (Moiraine ~ Gandalf), Trollocs as Orcs, Fades as Nazgúl, a long journey with dangers, a trip through a mystical forest (the Ways ~ paths in LOTR), and a climactic journey to a special site. While Jordan adds his own twists, early sections especially feel like a 1980s homage that hasn't aged as freshly for some.

Of all criticism of the book, this one I find to be the most unpersuasive. ALL genre fiction is derivative of some source material. That's why it's genre fiction in the first place. Using the same logic, I should not enjoy Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot stories because they are highly derivative of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I should also not enjoy Sherlock Holmes stories because they are derivative of Edgar Allan Poe's detective stories (he invented the genre).

Sorry, A.H. Lloyd, I'm not allowed to read your Man of Destiny series because it's derivative of George Lucas' Star Wars prequel movies. I know you wrote the series specifically to fix the narrative problems you saw in the prequels. If it makes you feel any better, I can't enjoy Star Wars because it's derivative of Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.

This criticism also does not take into account the nature of the Hero's Journey, which is the actual pattern of storytelling that both Tolkien and Jordan are following. If anything, The Wheel of Time as a whole is far more derivative of other series, particularly Frank Herbert's Dune.

Tolkien himself was not beyond deriving his storytelling from other works, as illustrated by the comment below:

I'm re-reading the Silmarillion and also reading City of God and WOW. I always loved it as a heroic tale, but there is just so much going on. Tolkien is basically laying out the Council of God and the reality of spiritual warfare in laymen's terms.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 30, 2026 10:21 AM (ZOv7s)

We could spend all day dissecting the derivativeness of various stories, going all the way back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. That could be kinda fun! Have at it in the comments!

At the time Jordan was publishing his novel (1990), the epic fantasy landscape looked very different than it does today. Back then, there was an expectation from readers for a Tolkienesque fantasy story to kick off a new epic series. Tad Williams did it with The Dragonbone Chair in 1988, Raymond E. Feist did it with Magician in 1982, and Terry Brooks started the trend with The Sword of Shannara in 1977. Fans at the time responded overwhelmingly, and Williams, Feist, and Brooks all became some of the most successful fantasy authors of all time--because they started with a Tolkienesque fantasy novel. (Dennis L. McKiernan's Iron Tower trilogy was a little TOO Tolkienesque, as it was literally Lord of the Rings with the ISBN filed off, so he was not as successful as the other authors who took more creative liberties with the source material.)

2. Slow Pacing and Repetitive Travel

The novel is often described as a long road-trip/chase story with extended sections of walking, riding, camping, and moving between locations (Emond's Field to Shadar Logoth, to Caemlyn, etc.). Some find the middle sections, especially when the party splits or travels, meandering or dry, requiring patience before action picks up. The book is long (~800 pages in many editions), and the journey can feel padded.

I can understand this up to a point. Yes, when the main party splits up into three groups, there are chapters that seem like "filler" material because we have to follow three different storylines. These chapters do serve as sections where Jordan can provide *some* character development and readers get a better sense of the relationships between the main characters like Egwene/Perrin, Rand/Mat, and Nynaeve/Moiraine, all of which will be extremely important to the overall story. Personally, while the pacing does slow down in the middle section, I still enjoy those sections. Up until that point, the characters have been rushing through their adventure. Now we readers can get our breath back and start to focus on the actual characters. The pacing picks up at lightning speed at the end (see below).

3. Bland or Underdeveloped Characters

The main protagonists (especially the Emond's Field trio: Rand, Mat, and Perrin) are frequently called generic or uncompelling early on--naive, argumentative teenagers who make poor decisions. Supporting characters can feel archetypal, and some readers note a lack of humor, depth, or strong individual voices in the first book. Female characters are sometimes critiqued for description-heavy introductions focused on appearance.

So the main characters are behaving like teenagers--because they ARE teenagers? Color me shocked! Of course they are going to be acting immature and whiny from time to time. They are "diamonds in the rough." They have not been shaped by their adventures yet and they themselves have no idea who they are going to grow into as adults. That's part of the epic hero story. As it turns out, all of the teenagers from Emond's Field (Rand, Mat, Perrin, and Egwene) are going to develop into characters that will shake the very pillars of creation. Quite literally in Rand's case. But in the first book of a very long story, we are not going to get any of that. One of my absolute favorite scenes in the entire book occurs near the end of the series, in The Towers of Midnight. Perrin's story development concludes when he fully accepts his leadership role. He uses his blacksmith skills to forge a new weapon to be used in the fight against the Dark One, and in doing so he tranforms internally to become the man, the leader, the ruler he was always destined to be:

The tool he left behind was the hammer of a simple blacksmith. That person would always be a part of Perrin, but he could no longer afford to let him lead.

From now on, he would carry the hammer of a king.

That's where THIRTEEN BOOKS of character development takes you. Perrin goes from being an apprentice blacksmith in a small village to a general and a king, leading entire armies in the largest war seen in three thousand years. He then proceeds to unleash holy Light-blessed whoopass on the Shadow. It's awesome.

The supporting characters, being taken from the Hero's Journey, are there to provide guidance and training to the younger characters, to set them on their path. They have already accomplished much in their lives and are now passing on their knowledge to the next generation. Moiraine, Lan, and Thom (the older mentor characters) will have *enormous* influence on the growth and development of Rand, Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and, to a lesser extent, Nynaeve. But we won't see that until a few books later.

By comparison, the main young characters in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones(i.e., the Stark children and Daenerys Targaryen) are even younger than the Emond's Fielders from The Eye of the World. Harry Potter starts his epic journey when he's only eleven years old. Taran, the Apprentice Pig-Keeper from Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain starts out very young as well, though no age is given, nor do we even get a description of Taran's appearance.

4. Clunky Prose and Writing Tics

Jordan's style draws complaints for awkward phrasing, repetitive word choices (e.g., overuse of "though"), unnecessary adverbs like "wordlessly," and lengthy descriptive passages. While world-building is detailed, the prose can feel stiff or overly explanatory compared to more modern fantasy.

I can understand how the writing style might not be everyone's cup of tea. There are lengthy passages in later novels that could use tighter editing. No question about that. The Eye of the World is the first novel in the series, so there's always going to be some rough edges. Before Jordan wrote this novel, he'd been writing Conan stories. I have not read Jordan's Conan stories yet (on my TBR pile), but I have read many of Robert E. Howard's original stories, which feature the same stylistic choices that readers complain about in Jordan's writing. No doubt Jordan's attempts at emulating Howard's style to evoke a Conanesque story bled into his writing in The Wheel of Time.

There are plenty of successful authors whose style I don't enjoy, so I think it's very much a personal preference here. Which is fine. I tried reading N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season because I heard it was really good and I couldn't get past her writing style. I gave up after only a few chapters. I didn't even get far enough into the story to know what it was about.

5. Rushed or Anticlimactic Ending

After a long build-up, the final confrontation at the Eye of the World and resolution can feel abrupt, rushed, or less impactful than the preceding journey. Some readers sense the book was written to potentially stand alone while setting up a series, which weakens the payoff.

Of all the criticisms, I think this one has the best justification. Yes, the ending does seem quite rushed compared to the pacing of the earlier story. The first 43 chapters (over 500 pages) is spent just traveling from Emond's Field to the large city of Caemlyn, a journey that takes several weeks. Then the characters reunite and compare notes of their respective travels. At that point they have to rush to the very end of the earth to the climax, which takes up the last 100 pages or so of the book. It just moves so fast that readers can feel like the ending is very much rushed. All character development is dropped at that point and we are treated to numerous scenes of expository dialog as the meaning of the previous events is explained to the reader. This is a weakness that occurs in multiple novels of The Wheel of Time. I'd say that books 1, 3, and 5 in particular have weaker endings than books 2, 4, and 6. When Brandon Sanderson was tasked with completing the series after Jordan's untimely death, he broke up the finale into three books instead of Jordan's planned single novel, simply because the story NEEDED that much space to conclude the series.

And there you have it. Five reasons why you should NOT read Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World. I still say it's one of my favorite books of all time, but then I was Jordan's target demographic (a seventeen-year-old boy) when I first read it. It's stuck with me all these years. The second book, The Great Hunt, is even better.

ADDENDUM

Apparently YouTube is continually spying on me, because the following video showed up in my YouTube feed AFTER I wrote the above post. The YouTuber discusses his own thoughts on the subject of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, and even addresses most of the same criticisms. Kinda eerie.

PREVIOUS SUNDAY MORNING BOOK THREAD - 5-24-2026 (NOTE: Do NOT comment on old threads!)

Tips, suggestions, recommendations, etc., can all be directed to perfessor -dot- squirrel -at- gmail -dot- com.

"Heeere's Huggy!"

Disclaimer: Let the Morons ride again on the winds of time.

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Tolle Lege

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 08:58 AM (Ia/+0)

2
ESPONJA!!11!!!1!!

g'mornin' again, 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at May 31, 2026 09:00 AM (AMvSw)

3 Woo hoo! Featured review on the book thread!!

Whaddya mean I gotta go somewhere?!

Ratzafratza.... Back later.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:00 AM (1Ff7Z)

4 [REDACTED FOR BEING RETARDED]

Posted by: Paul at May 31, 2026 09:00 AM (ZO2VL)

5 Time enough at last

Actually for me been watching too many movies and not enough reading in Carl v.Clauswitz's On War.
For being written 200 years ago, he did explain war pretty damn well.

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 09:02 AM (Ia/+0)

6 Booken morgen horden

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 31, 2026 09:04 AM (LmPA0)

7 Objection. Those pants are perfectly fine, and I would wear them to the American State Fair with pride.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:04 AM (h7ZuX)

8 Objection. Those pants are perfectly fine, and I would wear them to the American State Fair with pride.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:04 AM (h7ZuX)
---
USA! USA! USA!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:05 AM (gnNyN)

9 I'm finishing Born Lucky by Leland Vittert.

Unfortunately the image he paints of himself unintentionally is rather unsympathetic. He comes off as a rich, spoiled, brat who was indeed born lucky.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 31, 2026 09:05 AM (RIvkX)

10 Actually for me been watching too many movies and not enough reading in Carl v.Clauswitz's On War.
For being written 200 years ago, he did explain war pretty damn well.
Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 09:02 AM (Ia/+0)
----
War...War never changes...

--Fallout franchise tagline

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:05 AM (gnNyN)

11 Crouchback by Sarah Eoodbury was fun. Eill read the next mystery.

Currently listening to the very slim volume of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 1 by Beth Brower.
Taking my time with it. Delightful.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 31, 2026 09:06 AM (fE6HJ)

12 MOrning, Book Folken!

I'm currently working my way through a collection of various short SF stories by Asimov. It begins with his famous "Nightfall," but the stories get even better as we progress through his career. One, "Hostess," is a true suspenser, much like Agatha Christie's "Philomel Cottage" or Francis Iles's Before the Fact, but with an SF element woven all through. A classic example of mixing mystery with SF and showing how the background is the overall determinant of the story.

Another, "C-Chute," is a kind of Alistair Maclean thriller in miniature. Six disparate characters are aboard a starship that has been captured by aliens, chlorine-breathers, who are at war with the Earth. They are facing a long internment on an alien planet. Can they escape? And the six personalities are important in the story and the outcome.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:08 AM (wzUl9)

13 Whaddya mean I gotta go somewhere?!

Ratzafratza.... Back later.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:00 AM (1Ff7Z)

My man...you just need to put your foot down. Two hours on Sunday morning is yours, and everybody else is forbidden to schedule something that requires your attention during that time.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:09 AM (h7ZuX)

14 Good morning fellow Book Threadists. I hope everyone had a great week of reading.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:10 AM (yTvNw)

15 My man...you just need to put your foot down. Two hours on Sunday morning is yours, and everybody else is forbidden to schedule something that requires your attention during that time.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:09 AM (h7ZuX)
----
Church-related activities, medical emergencies, and the quest for new pants are the only exceptions to this rule.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:11 AM (gnNyN)

16 How can we use the phrase "back in 1990" when that was just yesterday?!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:12 AM (kpS4V)

17 11 Crouchback by Sarah Eoodbury was fun. Eill read the next mystery.

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 31, 2026 09:06 AM (fE6HJ)

Hm. Free on kindle today. I'll take it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:13 AM (h7ZuX)

18 Sounds as if "Bombastic" Bushkin became "Bombshell" Bushkin.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:13 AM (p/isN)

19
How can we use the phrase "back in 1990" when that was just yesterday?!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:12 AM (kpS4V)

Better to use the phrase-

"Last century, we (did whatever...)"

Then you can sound as though you possess the wisdom of the ages.

Posted by: naturalfake at May 31, 2026 09:15 AM (iJfKG)

20 Morning, Perfessor.

Howdy, Horde.

Reading this week? More of Westlake's Parker novels.

It is a tribute to the niftiness of the Sunday Book Thread that I'm sitting here at the keyboard chatting with the Horde instead of in my chair with the Kindle, which tells me that I am 2/3 of the way through the last novel in the series.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:15 AM (q3u5l)

21 Yay book thread! I'm getting to the part of Mao's Army Goes to Sea where the author actually talks about...Mao's army going to sea. Geez, what a slog.

The author is wordy, repetitive, keeps foreshadowing uninteresting events, but now that I'm in the 20 or so pages with useful information, I'm learning a lot.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:15 AM (ZOv7s)

22 There are some names dropped by Bushkin of women he had affairs with, such as Joyce DeWitt and Mary Hart.

I always thought Joyce DeWitt was mucho sexier than Suzanne Somers.

Morning, all.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:15 AM (qRla/)

23 Church-related activities, medical emergencies, and the quest for new pants are the only exceptions to this rule.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:11 AM (gnNyN)

OK, fair enough.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:16 AM (h7ZuX)

24 After weeks of delay and distraction, I'm back to reading "The Silmarillion."

It turns out that I paused reading at a section break, halfway through a chapter. Did the near-one-month real-world time-skip hurt the flow of the story? Not a bit. The second half of the chapter featured several decade-long in-universe time-skips.

I've finally reached the part when Men enter the story! It's still a slog (I can only manage one chapter per sitting) but it feels like I'm finally getting to the part that actually sets up events I'm familiar with.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 09:17 AM (3v7ra)

25 Part of the reason why I stopped reading fiction for a time and stuck just to history was all of the arguing about derivatives. I like a well written compelling story and don't care if it's modeled after some previous plot in another ancient story.

Posted by: Rev. Wishbone at May 31, 2026 09:18 AM (D1E+2)

26 MP4 at 22 -

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:18 AM (q3u5l)

27 Sorry, A.H. Lloyd, I'm not allowed to read your Man of Destiny series because it's derivative of George Lucas' Star Wars prequel movies
---
But are you going to read it? That's my question.

My objection to The Wheel of Time is simply that I got bored. A book should interest me on its own merits. Friends recommended it, loaned me Eye of the World, I knew it was hugely popular, but it didn't do anything for me.

And this was when I was nerding outo on Roman and Greek translations like Livy and Tacitus. (Tacitus..ahhhh).

At the end of the day, can't argue taste. The Romans had a phrase for it.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:19 AM (ZOv7s)

28
Mao's Army Goes to Sea


Sounds like Mao's Beach Blanket Bingo.

Did they all buy cute, new bikinis and eat snow cones?

Posted by: naturalfake at May 31, 2026 09:19 AM (iJfKG)

29 Snagged audio loan of the Bushkin Carson book when library added it. Second the recommendation.

Sadly PA (philly) free library slashed their Libby budget about 90% a few months ago. Went from adding 100s of titles every week to about ten. Oh well, now wishlist is shrinking instead of growing.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at May 31, 2026 09:20 AM (KaHlS)

30 Read the pleasant SF novella "To Be Taught, If Fortunate" by Becky Chambers, who is apparently part of the Hopepunk school, as opposed to the Grimdark. It's about a four-person team sent to explore and catalog planets in a system 15 light years from Sol. Through biological adaptation called somaforming, they are able to survive in environments hostile to humans -- hacking themselves instead of terraforming a likely planet.

It takes a decade for news to reach them and another decade for their findings to return to Earth, and they find themselves increasingly divorced from the goings on in their home planet. Then the dispatches from home become more and more infrequent, then stop. What is their mission now?

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:20 AM (kpS4V)

31 While many people know of the German battleship Bismarck, famous for her short but ferocious life in the North Atlantic, fewer are aware that she had a larger sister ship, Tirpitz. Ludovic Kennedy, a former navy lieutenant who took part in the sinking of Bismarck, tells this story in The Death of the Tirpitz.

After Bismarck, Hitler made his surface navy a fleet in being, generally keeping them out of the open ocean to avoid direct battle with the Royal Navy. Churchill, however, knew the damage Tirpitz could cause, and she was a threat to the Russia convoys keeping the USSR in the war. Her mere presence tied up his fleet, and he ordered her destruction by any means possible.

Over the next three years, a cat and mouse game developed, as Tirpitz moved from one Norwegian fjord to another, and the British tried mines, mini submarines, and bombers to strike the ship. Tirpitz was damaged several times, reducing her utility, but finally, the men of the 617 "dam buster" squadron got their chance. In November of 1944, 39 Lancaster bombers dropped their 12,000 pound tall boy bombs, scoring at least two direct hits and several near misses, and Tirpitz capsized, ending the threat.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:20 AM (0U5gm)

32 But are you going to read it? That's my question.

My objection to The Wheel of Time is simply that I got bored. A book should interest me on its own merits. Friends recommended it, loaned me Eye of the World, I knew it was hugely popular, but it didn't do anything for me.

And this was when I was nerding outo on Roman and Greek translations like Livy and Tacitus. (Tacitus..ahhhh).

At the end of the day, can't argue taste. The Romans had a phrase for it.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:19 AM (ZOv7s)
---
I just ordered your series yesterday. Should be arriving in another day or so.

And if you didn't like Eye of the World because it bored you, that's fine. I get it.

A lot of people rave about Robert A. Heinlein around here. I find him to be OK, but not great.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:21 AM (gnNyN)

33 Whoa, JSG, you're a buzzsaw with books!

I have all the Parker books (University of Chicago paperback editions), mostly from my first purchasing binge nearly 20(!) years ago, but still have yet to crack them. I have so many other books.

They sit on a shelf where I see them every morning.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:22 AM (p/isN)

34 There are some names dropped by Bushkin of women he had affairs with, such as Joyce DeWitt and Mary Hart.
----

I bet you could make a good game out of "Six Degrees of Match Game". Or maybe even "Two Degrees of...".

Hey, it was the 70's, man.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:23 AM (kpS4V)

35 It's kind of funny how this thread has shaped up, because it really highlights the different expectations of fiction vs nonfiction.

Fiction for me has very high standards. My time is important, so I expect a quality reading experience from the very first words. I'm not going to invest time in the hope that things get better. I don't need a time-waster.

Nonfiction is completely different. I am quite willing to wade waist-deep in boredom to find specific information. I will tolerate every literary offense and error in that effort.

If Yoshihara was writing on any other topic, I would have punched out long ago. I would never read his cluttered, repetitive prose for pleasure.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:24 AM (ZOv7s)

36 @22 --

Another vote here for DeWitt. I prefer brunettes.

Yes, that means Bailey over Jennifer.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:24 AM (p/isN)

37 It's kind of funny how this thread has shaped up, because it really highlights the different expectations of fiction vs nonfiction.

Fiction for me has very high standards. My time is important, so I expect a quality reading experience from the very first words. I'm not going to invest time in the hope that things get better. I don't need a time-waster.

Nonfiction is completely different. I am quite willing to wade waist-deep in boredom to find specific information. I will tolerate every literary offense and error in that effort.

If Yoshihara was writing on any other topic, I would have punched out long ago. I would never read his cluttered, repetitive prose for pleasure.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:24 AM (ZOv7s)
----
This is a good topic for a future Book Thread!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (gnNyN)

38 Enough delay.

I put the majority of my reading time this past week into "Neon Empire," a Nate Heller crime adventure by Max Allan Collins.

I don't want to spoil the story, even if the fate of Ben Siegel and his Flamingo hotel and casino is common knowledge, so I'll just mention that the book includes photos of the real-life players involved, some of whose existence surprised me. The Chicago police detective Bill Drury, for example. There's also an exterior shot of the Flamingo. My reaction: That's what turned Las Vegas into Vegas, Baby? I don't see how. Maybe the interior had all the glitz.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (p/isN)

39 I finished re-reading the first half of the old (early 00's) comic book series "Sojourn," now on my bookshelf as a custom-bound hardcover. This series is one of the reasons I go on about comic books on this thread. It is one of my all-time favorites, and I still search for books that made me feel the way I felt when first collecting this series...

It's a lusciously illustrated High Fantasy story, starring a blonde heroine, a roguish scoundrel, and a dog that will happily drag down a troll to protect his master. And for a few issues in this collection (#7-11) we get to see a dragon fighting a demonic revenant! Visually stunning, it's everything I could want in a comic. Too bad it's so short...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (3v7ra)

40 The Bismarck and Tirpitz were two names I thought of using for a personalized license plate on my late beloved '86 Mercedes S-Class. It was long and gray and German, so such a name plate seemed appropriate. But "Bismarck" was too long, and I didn't want people asking me, "Why'd yuh name yore car 'Tar Pits'?"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (wzUl9)

41 I took two books out of the library last week:

The first was Stuart Maconie's With A Little Help From Their Friends: The Beatles and The People Who Made Them. It's a collection of 100 vignettes of people who, in some way, influenced or were associated with the Fabs, from familiar (Yoko Ono) to the peripheral ('Magic Alex' Mardas) to the utterly obscure (David Christian, an Aussie illustrator charged with creating a cover for an obscure 1966 collection called Oldies But Goldies.

Interesting if you're a Beatle fan, but that's it. Maconie is also a travel writer and commenter of sorts; he wrote a book about following in the trail of the 1936 Jarrow March, which I will report on some other time.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (qRla/)

42 How can we use the phrase "back in 1990" when that was just yesterday?!
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes
___________

Despite the interwebs and cell phones, I would submit the world changed more between 1790 and 1826 than between 1990 and 2026. Maybe more between 1890 and 1926 as well.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (XvL8K)

43 I've finally gotten around to A Canticle for Liebowitz, recommended so often here by the horde.

I'm about a third of the way through, and it's a good read. I feel like I'm missing some deep stuff, since I read at bedtime and find myself dozing off a lot. It may require a second read when I'm all done with it.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:26 AM (h7ZuX)

44 I can dress up, but Ginger can't cook.

Posted by: Mary Ann at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (9L7Ix)

45 I've been reading Project Hail Mary this week. I rarely read SF anymore, but this book is a dandy. It's smart and funny and Ryland Grace and Rocky are terrific characters. I may watch the movie some day just to see how Hollywood messes up the story.

Posted by: huerfano at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (VJX5o)

46 Joyce then, Suzanne later, not that both didn't age well

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (Ia/+0)

47 I just started reading _Down to a Sunless Sea_ by Lin Carter. It's a pastiche of Leigh Brackett's pastiches of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Published in 1984 and apparently Carter took a while to get over the 1970s because he spends a lot of time describing breasts and their movements.

I'm just a couple of chapters in and our totally-not-Eric John Stark character is escorting a pair of MARTIAN LESBIANS across the desert and keeping an eye on their breasts for them. But judging from the title and the back cover blurb we're about to go inside the planet to an underground civilization. I'm willing to bet there's breasts down there, too.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (78a2H)

48 Finished "Escape From Redeye," Jason Anspach and Nick Cole's continuation of the adventures of awesome bounty hunter Tyrus Rechs in the Galaxy's Edge universe, and am bow reading The Betrayed," by the same guys, Book 24 in that same universe. I love the Galaxy's Edge series.

Other than that, today I'm also reading SpaceX's 300 page IPO prospectus, to figure out what I should do in anticipation of their going public on Friday, June 12. Hmmmmm. Ihave some spare loot lying around, and would really like to get in on the ground floor of this company.

Posted by: Sharkman at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (/RHNq)

49 AHL, it's very true that I am willing to sift through a lot of dross (or kitty litter) for some nuggets of information. Nonfic is more like a tool. But oh, the delights of a well-written history reading as bracingly as a good novel!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (kpS4V)

50 Weak Geek --

When you get to the Parkers, I hope you'll enjoy 'em as much as I've been enjoying them the last few weeks. Not sure why I decided it was time to revisit them, but glad I did -- this is the first time in at least a decade, and maybe two decades, that I've been able to start a series and stay with it all the way through without hitting book 7 or 8 and deciding it's time for something else.

Hope I'll be able to do that again -- Travis McGee and Matt Scudder are due for a revisit too. And Bleak House is still tapping my shoulder insistently...

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:28 AM (q3u5l)

51 Why does my cat go spastic and demand attention during the Book Thread? Every damn time.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:28 AM (kpS4V)

52 I started Wheel of Time with Hunt as a junior in high school and then read Eye because that's the order they were available in at my local used bookstore. In my memory that makes Hunt the first book and Eye a prequel which may have added to my enjoyment of the series.
I was also in the target audience, especially since I had been reading a lot of fantasy that was derived from Celtic mythology and hadn't read any Tolkein. That made aspects to of the story familiar and others extremely novel and I didn't get that feeling again until Sanderson's Way of Kings.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 09:29 AM (lFFaq)

53 I just ordered your series yesterday. Should be arriving in another day or so.

And if you didn't like Eye of the World because it bored you, that's fine. I get it.

A lot of people rave about Robert A. Heinlein around here. I find him to be OK, but not great.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:21 AM (gnNyN)
---
Cool! I think you'll like it.

Early on in life I realized that I was something of an odd duck. People saw me reading about wars, strategy and stuff and figured I was a chess nerd. No. I hate chess.

Writing style counts for a lot with me. I despise Stephen King's writing style. My wife really tried to get me into the Gunslinger, which she loves and I could ot get past the ugly words on the page.

However, Graham Greene writes so well that many times I've been on the point of "Geez, enough already, where are we going here" but kept on because he has such wonderful prose. Yoshihara's writing is horrible, but his work is derived from Chinese records, so he's the only game in town. I use it as bathroom reading because in any other setting, I'll get bored and read something else.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:30 AM (ZOv7s)

54 My wife and kiddo read Project Hail Mary before we all went to the movie. They found it to be a decent adaptation of the book and enjoyed it.

Posted by: PabloD at May 31, 2026 09:31 AM (K1RVP)

55 The mob puf a lot of teamsters pension fund monies after they lost the casinos some of them like dino cellini ended up in the bahamas resorts intermational

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 09:32 AM (bXbFr)

56 The other book was Jim Rasenberger's A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. You obviously can guess the contents from the title, and since the subject fascinates me, I was anxious to read it.

I got no further than page 16 of the prologue:

Today, as we celebrate - if that's the word - the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and mark the 200th anniversary of the deaths of Adams and Jefferson, we may find that Adams speaks more powerfully to us than Jefferson. The political structures Adams insisted on - the rule of law, the separation of powers - are giving way to the things he most feared. The aristocracy he always warned about is on the verge of becoming a full-blown oligarchy of billionaires. The democratic populace has found succor, as Adams feared it would, in a strongman.

OK, then. Screw you, pal.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:33 AM (qRla/)

57 "I use it as bathroom reading because in any other setting, I'll get bored and read something else."
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd
----

There's your pull quote for the dust jacket!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:33 AM (kpS4V)

58 "I'm re-reading the Silmarillion and also reading City of God and WOW. I always loved it as a heroic tale, but there is just so much going on. Tolkien is basically laying out the Council of God and the reality of spiritual warfare in laymen's terms."

Dammit to hell! As if I don't have enough to read, now A H Lloyd tempts me to add to the pile. I haven't read the entire Silmarillion in quite a few years and never read Augustine's City of God although I now about it. Now I'm intrigued. My appreciation of Tolkien increases as I get older and can bring new (and hopefully better) perspective to his writing. Add one of the foundational books of Christianity to the process should make it all richer. But it will be a prolonged endeavor, knowing me. I see MANY notes on a pad and much highlighting in my future once I start.

I'm tempted to thank AHL but he might just be laughing up his sleeve thinking about the disruption this will bring to some of the Horde. Innocence or mischievous: that is the question.

Sigh! Better check my supply of coffee, legal pads and ink for my fountain pens.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:33 AM (yTvNw)

59
While many people know of the German battleship Bismarck, famous for her short but ferocious life in the North Atlantic...

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:20 AM

Bismarck is more famous for a reason

only Muldoon could manage to rhyme something with "Tirpitz"

Posted by: Zombie Johnny Horton at May 31, 2026 09:34 AM (AMvSw)

60 I can dress up, but Ginger can't cook.
Posted by: Mary Ann at May 31, 2026 09:27 AM (9L7Ix)

Ginger does butt stuff.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:34 AM (qRla/)

61 Why does my cat go spastic and demand attention during the Book Thread? Every damn time.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026

***
My two are busy sleeping off their breakfast.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:34 AM (wzUl9)

62

Posted by: Zombie Johnny Horton at May 31, 2026 09:34 AM (AMvSw)

63 The Rasp - Philip MacDonald - finishing up my second reading. Thanks for recommending this book, though I'm not sure which one of us did so.

Posted by: Berwyn Mutt - Home of Svengoolie at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (HcbZb)

64 I'll have to look for Project Hail Mary at my library. Who's the author, again?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (wzUl9)

65 I have City of God on my shelves, but have not yet got around to even cracking it open.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (qRla/)

66 38
I put the majority of my reading time this past week into "Neon Empire," a Nate Heller crime adventure by Max Allan Collins.

IPosted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (p/isN)

Is this pretty old? I'm unable to find it on amazon, any of my library apps, and even thriftbooks.

*kicks rocks

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (h7ZuX)

67 I spent part of last weekend packing up several stacks of comic books to ship to a bindery, to turn them into shelf-worthy hardcover books. Everything was ready to go, all that was left was to tape up the box and wait until Fed-Ex was open... Then the next morning I saw a news announcement that two of those comic stacks were getting an official reprint. The size, price, and even delivery date was going to be better than commissioning the custom bind, and I would be getting a clean printing, not the smudged and messy printing on 40-year-old newsprint. The only downside was that I wouldn't get to use the cool custom-covers I worked out. Oh, well, I have other comic stacks sitting around waiting for their turn to be shipped off. This just lets them shipped off earlier.

The comic in question was "The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones," and this is just further evidence of the incompetence or outright malice of the Disney-LucasFilm-Marvel conglomeration. These stories should have been re-printed back in 2023, to help hype up the Indiana Jones movie being released. But instead they waited until now, for seemingly no reason. No corporate synergy, what-so-ever...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 09:37 AM (3v7ra)

68 I'm tempted to thank AHL but he might just be laughing up his sleeve thinking about the disruption this will bring to some of the Horde. Innocence or mischievous: that is the question.

Sigh! Better check my supply of coffee, legal pads and ink for my fountain pens.
Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:33 AM (yTvNw)
----
The Sunday Morning Book Thread has ruined many a Moron...as my own bank account can verify.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:37 AM (gnNyN)

69 Thanks for the Sunday Morning Book Thread, Perfessor!

Finished James Madison, The Founding Father by Robert A. Rutland. The books contained fine nuggets of information on life during Colonial times and the beginning of the 19th century. Great Britain's treatment of former colony United States (now beginning to develop into a world sovereign power) and the relationships among GB, France, Spain and the U.S. were interesting. The close relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Madison was a focal point of the book, with only minor highlights given of the relationships among other founding fathers. It seemed that the primary research on Madison was revealed in correspondence and documents between Jefferson and Madison and little else. I expected more detail on Madison's presidency, the first six years of which were substantial and intense. Compared to McDonald's history books on the founders, the book on Madison was a disappointment. Recommended reading for historical background but still looking for better history on Madison.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 31, 2026 09:37 AM (D/6p1)

70 A running battle in open sea is more interesting than a sitting in a fjord

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 09:37 AM (Ia/+0)

71 I should mention that when I was a teenager, I read with wild abandon as teens often do, and a friend recommended The Dragonlance Chronicles to me. "It's slow, but gets great later on." So I stuck with it. It didn't get better. The best thing I can say about it is that in Tales Vol. 3, there is a short story called "Into the Heart of the Story" that goes full Bored of the Rings on the entire series and it validated the hours I wasted. It was written by one of the contributors (playtester, friend of authors) so it's barbs were especially sharp.

That unquestionably wrecked my patience for fiction, and in retrospect likely contributed to me leaning so hard into history.

When I realized that you could read ancient authors in their own (albeit translated) words, that changed my life. Instead of selling my mother's romances for sci-fi/fantasy, I was now buying up Penguin Classics.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:38 AM (ZOv7s)

72 Andy Weir wrote Project Hail Mary. He also wrote The Martian. Dude has found his formula for making money.

Posted by: PabloD at May 31, 2026 09:39 AM (K1RVP)

73 I have City of God on my shelves, but have not yet got around to even cracking it open.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (qRla/)
----
I read parts of it in college, though I can't remember much about it. I still have it, though.

My Early Western Civ class was nothing but original texts (OK, translated into English), no politicized textbooks at all.

Great class with a great instructor.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:39 AM (gnNyN)

74 Maybe they tried putting Tirpitz out to sea but it was pining so for the fjords that they just couldn't keep it away from them.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:39 AM (q3u5l)

75 I have City of God on my shelves, but have not yet got around to even cracking it open.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:36 AM (qRla/)
---
I am going through it very slowly. A chapter or two at a time. Glad I read so much Livy etc. because it is really coming in handy.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:39 AM (ZOv7s)

76 The Rasp - Philip MacDonald - finishing up my second reading. Thanks for recommending this book, though I'm not sure which one of us did so.
Posted by: Berwyn Mutt - Home of Svengoolie at May 31, 2026

***
I read it many years ago during my heavy "classic detective story" phase in my teens. It does date a bit re: the method used to conceal the crime.

MacDonald got better, though. His Murder Gone Mad is one of the earliest serial killer stories, with Inspector Pike being the lead (Anthony Gethryn's style of detection wouldn't help much) in the hunt for killer in a garden suburb of London. It's not gory, but there are moments of true creepiness, and a thunderbolt ending.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:40 AM (wzUl9)

77 I'm still reading "Their Finest Hour: the Story of the Battle of Britain 1940" by Edward Bishop, and I learned about the SS official Franz Six. Reinhard Heydrich would have appointed him SD-Commander of Britain following a successful invasion. Heydrich naturally had a list (he always had lists) of prominent anti-Nazi figures to be rounded up and dealt with: Churchill, of course, and cabinet members, but also Noël Coward and Sigmund Freud, as well as organizations like the Freemasons and the Boy Scouts. Six would also round up the 300,000 British Jews. Thank God for the RAF.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:41 AM (kpS4V)

78 Im surprised no one had tried to a rework of sink the bismark

Then again they would focus on the wrong thing

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 09:41 AM (bXbFr)

79 Spent the week reading CJ Carella's Warp Marine series. Pretty good. Has a funny homage to Party Corriea at the beginning. Author apparently grew up in South America, but his military stuff seemed accurate to this non-military reader. Lots of swearing from the grunt viewpoint character, which is fair, and no explicit sex, which is refreshing. Lots of violence and death though, naturally.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 09:42 AM (lFFaq)

80 A running battle in open sea is more interesting than a sitting in a fjord

Posted by: Skip


Well, it was a lot quicker for sure, but the stories of the Royal Navy hauling mini submarines across the North Sea and them attempting to sneak them under the submarine nets to set limpet mines, or the bombers that flew a circuitous route to Archangel and then set out on a mission to bomb the Tirpitz are entertaining in their own way.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:43 AM (0U5gm)

81 Im surprised no one had tried to a rework of sink the bismark

Then again they would focus on the wrong thing
Posted by: Miguel cervantes
____________

What, the lucky Swordfish torpedoe hit?

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at May 31, 2026 09:43 AM (XvL8K)

82 Okay, I'm trying to ID the characters in the how-I-see-a-library post. We've got Winnie the Pooh, Alice (of Wonderland) and Mr. Rabbit, The Last Unicorn....Oh, then Harry Potter, probably Willie Wonka and an Oopa-Loompa on the ladder. Dorothy and Toto on the stool (that took me way too long to figure out). And the dragon.....Saphira from Eragon? The coloring isn't right for any of the main dragons from Pern. I dunno...

Some of those character are really hard to recognize as anime-style drawings. I'm simply too accustomed to their traditional western/movie interpretations.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 09:43 AM (3v7ra)

83 I've got thoughts on books about the Revolution and the swill I expect to come this year, but that's a topic for a different book thread.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (qRla/)

84 I've taken the plunge into the Warhammer 40K Expanded Universe.

I'm reading the Eisenhorn Omnibus, which chronicles the adventures of an Imperial Inquisitor (Gregor Eisenhorn) who starts out as a righteous, principled member of the Imperium, but eventually he succumbs to the lure of Chaos to accomplish his goals, supposedly in service to the God-Emperor of Mankind, but really furthering the agenda of the Chaos Gods who lurk deep within the Warp.

One rule I've discovered about this type of grimdark fantasy--don't get attached to any characters.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (gnNyN)

85 I'm tempted to thank AHL but he might just be laughing up his sleeve thinking about the disruption this will bring to some of the Horde. Innocence or mischievous: that is the question.

Sigh! Better check my supply of coffee, legal pads and ink for my fountain pens.
Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:33 AM (yTvNw)
---
It's really best done as something of a sidebar. I can't imagine going through City of God without taking a break.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:45 AM (ZOv7s)

86 I got "Project Hail Mary" from my socialist son a Christmas or two ago, and my wife is irked that I buy other books instead of reading what I have.

I have several books I've received from the kids, all just waiting. My goal is to get through at least two this year.

There's a reason why I don't ask for books for Christmas.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:45 AM (p/isN)

87 Professer, where is your library cat?

Posted by: Eromero at May 31, 2026 09:46 AM (LHPAg)

88 Yeah their lives are not long

I see the swill simon and schuster harper collins pushes ecch

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 09:46 AM (bXbFr)

89 On the road again. Touch base from Montana tonight.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 31, 2026 09:46 AM (M6RAZ)

90 Professer, where is your library cat?
Posted by: Eromero at May 31, 2026 09:46 AM (LHPAg)
----
Allie? Well, she wasn't in the library. In fact, I found her exploring the living room by herself, which is new.

Nowadays she spends a lot of time sleeping in my bed.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:47 AM (gnNyN)

91 We could spend all day dissecting the derivativeness of various stories, going all the way back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. That could be kinda fun! Have at it in the comments!

I've always pictured Gil's companion as a guy with a big nose and gravelly voice. Enkidinkidu.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:47 AM (1Ff7Z)

92 A running battle in open sea is more interesting than a sitting in a fjord
Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 09:37 AM (Ia/+0)
---
Churchill's description of the naval battles is superb. The intervention of HMS Warspite in the destroyer brawl is epic. (From memory) "The thunder of her main guns echoed like the voice of doom."

Do go on, Winston.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:48 AM (ZOv7s)

93 Non-fiction definitely has different standards than for fiction. A true story has plenty of interesting tidbits that make the story readable, even if the retelling is presented in a matter of fact way. Fiction stories require not only a creative story line, but an author who can present it well.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:48 AM (0U5gm)

94 I continue with Malcolm Guite's Galahad and Grail, both reading and listening to him read it. The problem is it is pulling me towards other Arthur materials like the two versions of Le Morte D'Arthur (Caxton and Winchester), and the works of Chretien De Troyes. So many rabbit holes to follow.

Warning! Extended reading of the ballad format makes it hard to read regular prose without expecting the rhymes, meter, and alliteration. It takes a while to stop expecting those things.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:48 AM (yTvNw)

95 @66 --

Copyright 1988. It's one of the earlier Heller books.

So, yes, old.

*whimpers*

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:49 AM (p/isN)

96 Still moving forward with Adrian Goldsworthy's new book, "Athens and Sparta". Lots of info contained in each chapter so taking it slow so I can digest it all.

Posted by: Tuna at May 31, 2026 09:49 AM (lJ0H4)

97 My man...you just need to put your foot down. Two hours on Sunday morning is yours, and everybody else is forbidden to schedule something that requires your attention during that time.
Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:09 AM (h7ZuX)

Unfortunately, Dash, it's the wife insisting that I take her to work. Need the money, so until she gets a license....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:50 AM (1Ff7Z)

98 I continue with Malcolm Guite's Galahad and Grail, both reading and listening to him read it. The problem is it is pulling me towards other Arthur materials like the two versions of Le Morte D'Arthur (Caxton and Winchester), and the works of Chretien De Troyes. So many rabbit holes to follow.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:48 AM (yTvNw)
----
I read Chretien De Troyes in my medieval romance class in college.

I haven't read him in a long, long time, but I do recall enjoying his stories.

I think you'll enjoy them, too.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:50 AM (gnNyN)

99 MP4 re Rasenberger.

I have to say, it's fairly efficient of a writer to repel his readers before they've even dipped into the book proper.

A while back there was a collection of short stories by Lewis Shiner that I was tempted to buy, but I looked at the sample which led off with an intro by Karen Joy Fowler. IIRC she spent as much time grousing about Republicans as she did talking about Shiner's work. Skipped the book, even though I kinda like what I've read of Shiner.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (q3u5l)

100 God created the USA to be the Good in Good vs Evil. The world was basically all evil prior to our creation IMO.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (WNOcj)

101 Church-related activities, medical emergencies, and the quest for new pants are the only exceptions to this rule.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:11 AM (gnNyN)

Well, I am going to get a new pair of pants today, but nothing's open yet.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (1Ff7Z)

102 I've taken the plunge into the Warhammer 40K Expanded Universe.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (gnNyN)
---
I stopped into the local gaming store yesterday, which is in a dead strip mall, so they have huge amounts of table space. Lots of miniatures going on, and I assumed it was 40k based on the scenery.

I guess it was, but I was at a loss to identify most of the models and units, which were much larger than anything out there when I was "current." I still play 2nd ed. (and still collect!) but I don't really relate to it anymore.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (ZOv7s)

103 There's an odd phenomenon with some women: their beauty kind of makes them sexless. Consider the Ginger/Mary Ann dichotomy. While Mary Ann is coded as a "good girl" from a small farm town while Ginger is a parody femme fatale, the strong pro-Mary Ann attraction from most men comes from the fact that she seems like she'd be a more appealing and enthusiastic partner in the sack. Ginger just screams high maintenance, low effort, and disinterest.

Regarding the "butt stuff" comment above, I think the reverse. Ginger comes across as vaguely prudish under her Marilyn Monroe cosplay. (Note that one of the sources of Marilyn's appeal is that she had the ability to seem to be both Ginger AND Mary Ann simultaneously.)

Same goes for Bailey vs. Jennifer on WKRP and for Joyce DeWitt over Suzanne Somers (odd that we don't remember their character names).

I wonder if it's just that more men consider them to be "in their league" and thus plausible romantic interests, while the super-beauties are more like remote features of the landscape?

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (78a2H)

104 Who is this man? What would drive him to live alone out here in the middle of nowhere with nothing but his books to keep him company? Seeing a picture like this can be a seed for a short story...What do YOU imagine his life is like out here? What secrets is he hiding? What is his motivation?

*************

Being in Tierra de Fuego (Land of Fire) in South America I imagine the story would be about a former Nazi German book burner who flees Europe and self-exiles to the remote locale where he attempts to achieve atonement by rescuing books previously banned by the Reich. Lots of jack-booted thugs and ex-Gestapo trying to track him down, so on and so forth...

Posted by: muldoon at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (qgHp7)

105 Well, I am going to get a new pair of pants today, but nothing's open yet.

Posted by: OrangeEnt



Well, I hope you are still wearing the old ones here. We have rules, you know.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (0U5gm)

106 Dash, are you going to this year's TxMoMe? I can bring the book.

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (p/isN)

107 Better to use the phrase-

"Last century, we (did whatever...)"

Then you can sound as though you possess the wisdom of the ages.
Posted by: naturalfake at May 31, 2026 09:15 AM (iJfKG)

Or, "in the last millenium, we...."

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (1Ff7Z)

108 Six would also round up the 300,000 British Jews. Thank God for the RAF.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:41 AM (kpS4V)

Eris, have you ever read Guy Walters' Nazis, Spies and Fakes? It's a collection of essays he wrote over the years on various topics. One is about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands and how, contrary to popular belief, the islanders pretty quickly acclimated to Nazi rule, even becoming active collaborators.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (qRla/)

109 85 ... "It's really best done as something of a sidebar. I can't imagine going through City of God without taking a break."

AHL, I meant to ask, which translation of City of God are you reading? I have the Dods version done in the mid-1800s but I'm thinking about the more recent Penguin Classics Bettenson version. They both get high praise.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:53 AM (yTvNw)

110 *woodbury

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 31, 2026 09:53 AM (gDlxJ)

111 AHL, I meant to ask, which translation of City of God are you reading? I have the Dods version done in the mid-1800s but I'm thinking about the more recent Penguin Classics Bettenson version. They both get high praise.
Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:53 AM (yTvNw)
----
Well, now I have to dig out my copy to see which translation I have...But it's buried in the garage and I don't feel like looking for it right now.

It'll have to wait until later...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:54 AM (gnNyN)

112 MacDonald got better, though. His Murder Gone Mad is one of the earliest serial killer stories, with Inspector Pike being the lead (Anthony Gethryn's style of detection wouldn't help much) in the hunt for killer in a garden suburb of London. It's not gory, but there are moments of true creepiness, and a thunderbolt ending.
---
Found it at my Kindle Store! Thanks Mr. Wolfus.

Posted by: Berwyn Mutt - Home of Svengoolie at May 31, 2026 09:54 AM (HcbZb)

113 Speaking of Tolkien, Pope Leo quoted a passage from Lord of the Rings in his first encyclical. The story arc of how he went from a derided escapist child's author to hippie totem to D&D's muse to author of the century and now a likely saint is something to behold.

More than one of the newly ordained priests in our diocese have said Tolkien inspired their vocation. Well, one of his sons became a priest, so it makes sense.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:56 AM (ZOv7s)

114 Eris, have you ever read Guy Walters' Nazis, Spies and Fakes? It's a collection of essays he wrote over the years on various topics. One is about the Nazi occupation of the Channel Islands and how, contrary to popular belief, the islanders pretty quickly acclimated to Nazi rule, even becoming active collaborators.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (qRla/)
----

No, but it's now on my list! Thanks.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:56 AM (kpS4V)

115 I bet you could make a good game out of "Six Degrees of Match Game". Or maybe even "Two Degrees of...".

Hey, it was the 70's, man.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:23 AM (kpS4V)

Johnny was actually trying to get Joyce, but backed off when he kept finding Bushkin and her together in a room.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:57 AM (1Ff7Z)

116 Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (78a2H)

They had men prefer DeWitt over Sommers?

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 09:57 AM (WNOcj)

117 35 It's kind of funny how this thread has shaped up, because it really highlights the different expectations of fiction vs nonfiction.

Fiction for me has very high standards. My time is important, so I expect a quality reading experience from the very first words. I'm not going to invest time in the hope that things get better. I don't need a time-waster.

Nonfiction is completely different. I am quite willing to wade waist-deep in boredom to find specific information. I will tolerate every literary offense and error in that effort.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:24 AM (ZOv7s)

It's a 'facts don't care about your feelings' type of situation. Reality doesn't care about your attention span. Non-fiction is worth your reading about because it actually happened. (Assuming the author isn't getting things wrong) Non-fiction, by definition, did not actually happen. Its sole reason for being is to entertain, and if it fails to do that...there is no point spending time on it.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 09:58 AM (3v7ra)

118 Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:49 AM (p/isN)

Library has True Detective, first in the series, so I'll start with that. As if I need another series to read.

I've already put it on reserve, so I'm committed.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 09:59 AM (h7ZuX)

119 AHL, I meant to ask, which translation of City of God are you reading? I have the Dods version done in the mid-1800s but I'm thinking about the more recent Penguin Classics Bettenson version. They both get high praise.
Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 09:53 AM (yTvNw)
---
I have the current Penguin edition. Can't tell you the translator because my cat is firmly ensconced on my legs.

The introduction was less than stellar, and I ended up skipping it. The translator has lots of footnote which include references to ancient texts that Augustine cites but he also tries to correct Augustine and I've found one instance where no, Mr. Modern Man, you got that wrong. Augustine was correct.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:59 AM (ZOv7s)

120 There's also an exterior shot of the Flamingo. My reaction: That's what turned Las Vegas into Vegas, Baby? I don't see how. Maybe the interior had all the glitz.
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (p/isN)

It was the gambling, likker, and wimmin.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:59 AM (1Ff7Z)

121 A lot of content. A lot.

Posted by: Eromero at May 31, 2026 10:00 AM (LHPAg)

122 I was mistaken. It's not City of God I have, but Augustine's Confessions. It's the 'Oxford World's Classics' version, translated by Henry Chadwick.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:00 AM (qRla/)

123 I just re-submitted two of my nov-length manuscripts (one mystery, one fantasy) to the Indie Author Project contest. I'd submitted them a couple of years ago and nothing came of it -- but who knows, and submission was free.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:01 AM (wzUl9)

124 Ope, not in the library system. Too bad.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 10:01 AM (kpS4V)

125 Oops. "Novel-length" manuscripts.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:01 AM (wzUl9)

126 40 The Bismarck and Tirpitz were two names I thought of using for a personalized license plate on my late beloved '86 Mercedes S-Class. It was long and gray and German, so such a name plate seemed appropriate. But "Bismarck" was too long, and I didn't want people asking me, "Why'd yuh name yore car 'Tar Pits'?"
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 09:25 AM (wzUl9)

I actually saw a license plate that read 444FOUR. People get very random when picking license plates...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 10:01 AM (3v7ra)

127 I love that image of 'how I see libraries' in the post. Thanks, Perfessor. That is just how I think of my books: wonder, imagination, and pleasure on the shelf. It is what I hope to instill in my great nephews and other young people I deal with.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 10:02 AM (yTvNw)

128 I'm rereading two easy books from my early youth, Tom Swift, Jr. "His Flyng Lab" and his "Jetmarine". Nostalgia, and I'm looking at how an author described the USA in pre-space age 1954.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:02 AM (LBorg)

129 I'm pretty sure 99% of the posters here have read Clarence Thomas's autobiography, My Grandfather's Son but if you haven't you need to stat.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:02 AM (WNOcj)

130 106 Dash, are you going to this year's TxMoMe? I can bring the book.
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (p/isN)

Oh, not likely this year. Probably next, and we'll have forgotten about it by then. But I thank you!

Is it Neon Mirage, maybe, and not Neon Empire? I see one in the Nathan Heller series titled Neon Mirage. Either way, looks like I can get them through interlibrary loan.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 10:03 AM (h7ZuX)

131 Johnny was actually trying to get Joyce, but backed off when he kept finding Bushkin and her together in a room.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 09:57 AM (1Ff7Z)
---
Carson's dark side was known back in the day, and it illustrates how many celebrities (especially comedians) are actually really awful people in person.

That being said, if you go back and watch the clips on youtube, he was a fantastic interviewer, and very politically neutral. He wanted (and got) the largest possible audience and was generous with his guest spots (until you pissed him off, of course).

I was just old enough to watch it intermittenly, and I now look back at how Ed was treated as something of a useless buffoon when I was a retired colonel in the Marine Corps.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:03 AM (ZOv7s)

132 I know of 2 Warhammer gaming places , 1 not far from me. Also some games at Historicon. But its not my interest.

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2026 10:04 AM (Ia/+0)

133 They had men prefer DeWitt over Sommers?
Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 09:57 AM (WNOcj)

I certainly did. Janet had brains, while Chrissy was the archetypal bimbo.

I also preferred Kate Jackson over Farrah Fawcett.

Carolyn Jones and Yvonne DeCarlo were a tie, though.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:05 AM (qRla/)

134 I was mistaken. It's not City of God I have, but Augustine's Confessions. It's the 'Oxford World's Classics' version, translated by Henry Chadwick.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:00 AM (qRla/)
---
Great book. A much easier (and faster) read than City of God.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:05 AM (ZOv7s)

135 MacDonald got better, though. His Murder Gone Mad is one of the earliest serial killer stories, with Inspector Pike being the lead (Anthony Gethryn's style of detection wouldn't help much) in the hunt for killer in a garden suburb of London. It's not gory, but there are moments of true creepiness, and a thunderbolt ending.
---
Found it at my Kindle Store! Thanks Mr. Wolfus.
Posted by: Berwyn Mutt - Home of Svengoolie at May 31, 2026

***
John Dickson Carr selected it long ago for his "ten best detective novels" anthology, which didn't come off. But his essay on the reasons he chose each author and book are fascinating reading. When I read Carr's description of MGM -- "t is the true blood-seeking" -- I knew I had to re-read it. It holds up well.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:05 AM (wzUl9)

136 I hate chess.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 09:30 AM (ZOv7s)

Isn't the queen a good sport!

Posted by: Bernaise at May 31, 2026 10:05 AM (1Ff7Z)

137 It's a shame Bushkin didn't give Johnny advice to quit smoking. Emphysema is a hell of a way to die

Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:06 AM (LBorg)

138 I highly suggest the Survivor series by
James Wesley, Rawles. As we are a group of people blessed with the sense to buy a commodity that begins with the letter 'A'. Take a look.

Posted by: Eromero at May 31, 2026 10:07 AM (LHPAg)

139 I have Hail Mary Project on audible for our road-trip in July to the spawn's Nationals competition. I need to find another one for the drive back... the spawn is the one who told me about the book/movie.

Posted by: lin-duh is offended at May 31, 2026 10:08 AM (VCgbV)

140 Ed McMahon is listed as a Colonel in wikipedia

Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (A6kjH)

141 As for my own writing:
I finished reading the draft aloud to my writing partner, making notes of plot holes and repetitive dialogue / descriptions (my characters tend to 'hold up a hand' a lot). Starting tomorrow, I'll be doing a new round of edits, very slowly, so that each chapter is as historically and geographically accurate as the storyline permits. I also need to do what I call 'set decoration' - adding descriptions of clothes, food, sounds and smells to give the reader a sense of actually being in 1922.

After I finish, I'll probably be asking for a couple of beta readers for input before I do one last round of edits and publish.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (qRla/)

142 "Night of Camp David" by Fletcher Knebel. Political potboiler about a US President who plots to take over Canada and Scandinavia, tap all phones in the USA, and stays up all night fuming about the domestic enemies he thinks are out to get him. I'd call it hacky, but I must admit it kept me turning the pages all the way to the end. SPOILER: The ending is a yuuuge cop-out.

Posted by: gp at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (Wq24h)

143 . . . After I finish, I'll probably be asking for a couple of beta readers for input before I do one last round of edits and publish.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026

***
Your process sounds thorough, MP4. I hereby volunteer to be a beta reader.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:10 AM (wzUl9)

144 glurb gleep bloop

Posted by: Paul, who enjoys the sexual affections of dogs at May 31, 2026 10:11 AM (n8yIs)

145 @130 --

Oh, for God's sake! Yes, the title is "Neon Mirage"!

I've used the wrong title for two weeks now!

And I call myself a copy editor.

*slinks off in shame*

Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 10:12 AM (p/isN)

146 JM -

I remember those Tom Swift Jr titles -- had a bunch of 'em before I started buying sf paperbacks. You could buy paperbacks in Chicago Lawn, but I don't recall an actual book store there. The Tom Swifts (along with The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drews, and Tarzans) were available at Iama Stationery just off 63d & Kedzie; for some reason the place sold those hardcovers as well as pens and paper. Now part of Walgreen's parking lot.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 10:13 AM (q3u5l)

147 Ed McMahon is listed as a Colonel in wikipedia
Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (A6kjH)
---
Yeah, odd typo in that post.

I didn't read it online, though, I was watching a highlight clip and Don Rickles was quizzing everyone on their time in the service, what branch and rank and when he gets to Ed, Rickles does a double take. Ed just gives him this knowing look "Yeah, this is my retirement gig. Deal with it."

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:13 AM (ZOv7s)

148 "Night of Camp David" by Fletcher Knebel. Political potboiler about a US President who plots to take over Canada and Scandinavia, tap all phones in the USA, and stays up all night fuming about the domestic enemies he thinks are out to get him. I'd call it hacky, but I must admit it kept me turning the pages all the way to the end. SPOILER: The ending is a yuuuge cop-out.
Posted by: gp at May 31, 2026

***
My first thought was that the author was familiar, and he should be: He wrote Seven Days in May. Second thought was that he was writing about Nixon . . . but the book was published in 1965, long before Nixon's renaissance on the American political stage.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:14 AM (wzUl9)

149 Jacklyn smith for the win although kate wasnt bad

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 10:14 AM (bXbFr)

150 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:14 AM (wzUl9)

More FDR imo.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:15 AM (WNOcj)

151 *slinks off in shame*
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 10:12 AM (p/isN)

We'll keep this among ourselves, and none shall ever speak of it again.

Posted by: Dash my lace wigs! at May 31, 2026 10:16 AM (h7ZuX)

152 84 I've taken the plunge into the Warhammer 40K Expanded Universe.

One rule I've discovered about this type of grimdark fantasy--don't get attached to any characters.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (gnNyN)

Oh, dear. Good luck.

I played a bit of 40K in the late 90's/early 00's, and I've got a few 40K books on my shelf. But the books I've actually read and remember were the 30K "Horus Heresy" books. (At least the first few books. Before the series became too expansive for my liking.) Part of what kept me from reading more was what the Perf mentioned at the end; I know too much about the 40K setting. I know everything is horrible, and that any action by individual characters is...ultimately futile. Which makes it hard to care about reading stories about those characters.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 10:16 AM (3v7ra)

153 Fletcher Knebel also wrote Vanished: ". . . about the political effects of the sudden, mysterious disappearance of the main aide to the President of the United States during a contentious re-election campaign." That was 1968. I think it appeared in one of the Reader's Digest Condensed Books volumes -- although I don't believe I read it, then or since.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:16 AM (wzUl9)

154 Your process sounds thorough, MP4. I hereby volunteer to be a beta reader.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:10 AM (wzUl9)

Many thanks, Wolfus. It probably won't be ready until the beginning of July, but we'll see. I might hijack a Book Thread in order to ask.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:17 AM (qRla/)

155 Andy Weir wrote Project Hail Mary. He also wrote The Martian. Dude has found his formula for making money.
Posted by: PabloD at May 31, 2026 09:39 AM (K1RVP)

He has one written between Martian and Hail Mary that's called Artemis. I assumed it was new when I saw it this week because no one seems to talk about it.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 10:17 AM (lFFaq)

156 My first thought was that the author was familiar, and he should be: He wrote Seven Days in May. Second thought was that he was writing about Nixon . . . but the book was published in 1965, long before Nixon's renaissance on the American political stage.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:14 AM (wzUl9)
---
Actually, it sounds like it *was* about Nixon and what would have happened if he beat Kennedy.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:17 AM (ZOv7s)

157 Knebel was s lefty capitol hill stringer i forget for which wire service i guess ne wanted to continue the meme of evil rightist

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 10:17 AM (bXbFr)

158 I've got thoughts on books about the Revolution and the swill I expect to come this year, but that's a topic for a different book thread.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (qRla/)
* * * *
I shall look forward to it! Thank you.

(and may the expected swill be smaller than expected and totally ignored...)

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 31, 2026 10:17 AM (D/6p1)

159 Well, I hope you are still wearing the old ones here. We have rules, you know.
Posted by: Thomas Paine at May 31, 2026 09:52 AM (0U5gm)

Well, I did have to go outside, so yeah, pants. I'm not a philistine who'd wear shorts outside!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:18 AM (1Ff7Z)

160 119 ... "The introduction was less than stellar, and I ended up skipping it. The translator has lots of footnote which include references to ancient texts that Augustine cites but he also tries to correct Augustine and I've found one instance where no, Mr. Modern Man, you got that wrong. Augustine was correct."

AHL, Thanks. I now have the Dods version on Kindle. I'll approach the Penguin Classics Bettenson edition with suitable caution. Explanatory footnotes are fine and even a section on translation choices. But keep the 21st century out of the 5th century.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 10:18 AM (yTvNw)

161 My first thought was that the author was familiar, and he should be: He wrote Seven Days in May. Second thought was that he was writing about Nixon . . . but the book was published in 1965, long before Nixon's renaissance on the American political stage.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026
---
Actually, it sounds like it *was* about Nixon and what would have happened if he beat Kennedy.
Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026

***]
Could have been, I guess.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:18 AM (wzUl9)

162 >>Posted by: gp at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (Wq24h)

Remember that as one of Mom's condensed books - read it as a teenager, and a few others of his, as well, from the library. Agreed on both parts of your review.

Posted by: Nazdar at May 31, 2026 10:19 AM (NcvvS)

163 99
A while back there was a collection of short stories by Lewis Shiner that I was tempted to buy, but I looked at the sample which led off with an intro by Karen Joy Fowler. IIRC she spent as much time grousing about Republicans as she did talking about Shiner's work. Skipped the book, even though I kinda like what I've read of Shiner.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 09:51 AM (q3u5l)

Karen. Joy Fowler. A Karen, who ruins joy. That's not a real person, that's the on-the-nose name of an antagonist in a slice-of-life or cozy-mystery novel...

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 10:21 AM (3v7ra)

164 I hereby volunteer to be a beta reader.

I think I would not be a good beta/proof reader for fiction. I did it for a couple of technical books a long time ago but for fiction, I think I would be too prone to read what I think you meant instead of what you actually wrote.

Posted by: Oddbob at May 31, 2026 10:21 AM (vTZFs)

165 They had men prefer DeWitt over Sommers?
Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 09:57 AM (WNOcj)

Sure. I found her sloppy looking and unattractive.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:21 AM (1Ff7Z)

166 I approve of today's 'these pants' selection, both the pants and the model.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2026 10:22 AM (yTvNw)

167 And now, pointless bitching and moaning about virtual narration. I bought the audiobook Under Fire - Mokra, a novel about the first day of WWII, September 1, 1939, the Nazi invasion of Poland. The AI narrator pronounces "Polish" as in "shoe polish" rather than in "Polish sausage" which is annoying given that every other word is Polish.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at May 31, 2026 10:22 AM (ndZc7)

168 Thank God for the RAF.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, She-Wolf of the 'Ettes 'Ettes at May 31, 2026 09:41 AM (kpS4V)
---
And the Royal Navy. I assume you are familiar of the epic wargame of Operation Sea Lion that took place in the 1970s, where many of the surviving generals served as umpires?

When the RAF determined its losses were getting unsustainable, they pull back to bases outside ME 109 range, and which point the Germans invaded.

The RAF then "surged" to cover a cruiser sortie that wrecked the invasion fleet, but not before a beachhead was established. IIRC, about 100,000 Germans made it ashore and were subsequently captured.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:23 AM (ZOv7s)

169 146 JM -

I remember those Tom Swift Jr titles -- had a bunch of 'em before I started buying sf paperbacks. You could buy paperbacks in Chicago Lawn, but I don't recall an actual book store there. The Tom Swifts (along with The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drews, and Tarzans) were available at Iama Stationery just off 63d & Kedzie; for some reason the place sold those hardcovers as well as pens and paper. Now part of Walgreen's parking lot.
Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 10:13 AM (q3u5l

------'
Just some guy --

What a coincidence! I grew up in the neighborhood just west of 79th and Pulaski, and spent a lot of time in the library there. I even remember the Chicago Library's bookmobile coming down the street in the '50s. We had a local Rexall drugs that was good for comic books and magazines. 63rd & K was a happening area.

Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:24 AM (eovtb)

170 The AI narrator pronounces "Polish" as in "shoe polish" rather than in "Polish sausage" which is annoying given that every other word is Polish.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at May 31, 2026 10:22 AM (ndZc7)
---
That's terrible editing. You can go into Amazon's and edit specific words to remedy that, but you do have to listen to the whole book to catch all the instances, which does take a bit of time and effort.

On the plus side, you find lots of little mistakes. It's a neat way to copy edit.

Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:25 AM (ZOv7s)

171
I'm reading Charlie Hustle by Keith O'Brien, a biography of - who else? - Pete Rose.

Did it change my mind about his being banned from baseball in the wake of the Dowd Report? No, it reinforced it. In February, 1989, MLB heard that Sports Illustrated was doing an investigation of Rose's gambling, which appeared to include baseball. The commissioner, Peter Ueberroth and the NL president, Bart Giamatti called Rose in and asked point blank: are you betting on baseball?

If Rose had said, yes, I'm sorry, I have a problem, MLB could have and wanted to work something out; they didn't want to ban him. But Rose lied and the subsequent Dowd investigation yielded overwhelming evidence he bet on his own team. Even then, MLB wanted to avoid the worst. But Rose went to court to block them. And so MLB pulled the trigger. Even so, Rose lied for years and years after.

It's regrettable that the Hall of Fame also declared him ineligible to be on the ballot. As we have seen from the Steroid Era nominees, some BBWAA members would have voted for him but Rose would never have come to the 75% threshold. Nor will he get ever get the 12 of 16 votes from the Veterans Committee.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 31, 2026 10:25 AM (HdYcL)

172 Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at May 31, 2026 09:44 AM (gnNyN)

Human written and AI performed Warhammer 40K songs are a genre I've discovered recently. Everything I know about the setting comes from those. Ciaphas Cain reminds me of Flashman if Flashman were a halfway decent human being. One of the channels is creating Horus Heresy: the Rock Opera which is helpful in explaining the lore.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 10:25 AM (lFFaq)

173 Good morning all
Wolfus, you may need to wait a while to get a copy of Project Hail Mary. There were over 1300 people ahead of me when I put it on reserve but got my copy a couple of days ago. The movie was terrific so I am hoping it enhances my visualizing the characters because the casting was fantastic.
Rediscovered Hoopla a couple of weeks ago and got a copy of Ilona Andrew's newest Beast Business. Short, which I seem to need these days, set in the Hidden Legacy World. Well done and a bunch of short stories included as a bonus.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at May 31, 2026 10:26 AM (kJmSS)

174 " ... spent as much time grousing about Republicans as she did talking about ... "

instant book-dropper for me, with subsequent perma-ban.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at May 31, 2026 10:27 AM (VyBeY)

175 Castle Guy at 163 -

The name would fit, wouldn't it? I've heard that Fowler is pretty good, but that piece introducing the Lewis Shiner collection is all I've read by her. And it's all I plan to read by her.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 10:28 AM (q3u5l)

176 Posted by: Ace-Endorsed Author A.H. Lloyd at May 31, 2026 10:03 AM (ZOv7s)

Carson's persona was probably more well known to people in the business than reg'lar folks. It's amazing how fast he could be set off by things that probably weren't that important. He wanted loyalty above all from those he promoted and employed and would get angry if he felt you weren't doing things for him. That's why Bushkin was fired. Johnny thought he was making deals behind his back.

As for people on his show.... He wasn't angry about Joan Rivers getting a show, he was mad because she didn't tell him before doing it, according to Bushkin. He didn't like Bob Hope because he had to have everything scripted for his appearances, but Hope was too important to not have on.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:29 AM (1Ff7Z)

177 Why didnt they liberate the channel isles

Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026 10:29 AM (bXbFr)

178 Why didnt they liberate the channel isles
Posted by: Miguel cervantes at May 31, 2026

***
Too close to German-occupied France?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:31 AM (wzUl9)

179 Show business seems to be such a cutthroat.Industry, populated by sharks at every turn --- I'm surprised anybody turns out to be good. But they do. For example, I hear Matt Damon is a good guy, despite his stardom and his politics

Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:32 AM (/K2a0)

180 What is up with all the pop up garbage, my ad blocker doesn't work on this site any longer. It's driving me nuts!

Posted by: dave at May 31, 2026 10:33 AM (2ZUrQ)

181 It's a shame Bushkin didn't give Johnny advice to quit smoking. Emphysema is a hell of a way to die
Posted by: JM in Illinois at May 31, 2026 10:06 AM (LBorg)

The book does touch on that, I believe.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:33 AM (1Ff7Z)

182 172
Human written and AI performed Warhammer 40K songs are a genre I've discovered recently. Everything I know about the setting comes from those. Ciaphas Cain reminds me of Flashman if Flashman were a halfway decent human being. One of the channels is creating Horus Heresy: the Rock Opera which is helpful in explaining the lore.
Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 10:25 AM (lFFaq)

Aw man, you just reminded me of the 'This a Not a Plan' video. I've watched/listened to that far more than is healthy.

This is not a plan,
This is not a drill,
I tripped and pointed towards the hill,
They thought it meant to circle around,
I just fell down and hit the ground.

Posted by: Castle Guy at May 31, 2026 10:34 AM (3v7ra)

183 After I finish, I'll probably be asking for a couple of beta readers for input before I do one last round of edits and publish.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at May 31, 2026 10:09 AM (qRla/)

I've noticed the hands up in some of my stuff too.

Still trying to finish one WiP so I can go on to something else that won't sell.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:35 AM (1Ff7Z)

184 The Channel Islands are also REALLY REALLY hard to land on. Local tidal range is something like 20 feet so the ferries only run every 12 hours. The Germans could barge in because there was no opposition. But if their occupation force had tried to resist, they could make retaking the islands a very bloody affair. And since they have nearly no strategic value it was simpler to just march to Berlin instead.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2026 10:35 AM (78a2H)

185 That being said, if you go back and watch the clips on youtube, he was a fantastic interviewer, and very politically neutral.

-
CBS Says Replacing Colbert Will Turn $40M Loss Into $15M Profit

-
CBS is putting profits before people!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at May 31, 2026 10:37 AM (ndZc7)

186 Sadly PA (philly) free library slashed their Libby budget about 90% a few months ago. Went from adding 100s of titles every week to about ten. Oh well, now wishlist is shrinking instead of growing.
Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike

--
Oh no!

Posted by: vmom deport deport deport at May 31, 2026 10:37 AM (fE6HJ)

187 JM -

The Rexall's I remember was at 62d and Kedzie. Picked up a lot of Marvel comics there. (Jeez, first issues of Spiderman and X-Men and Sgt Fury and Avengers, early issues of F4 and Hulk...) If I'd kept 'em instead of giving them away when I started buying paperbacks I could have paid the mortgage a hell of a lot sooner than I did. Who knew?

The place had a decent paperback rack as well, though not nearly up to the ones at Penner's Pharmacy and the old Walgreen's at 63d & Kedzie. The new Walgreen's now occupies what was the Marquette Theater and Iama Stationery. The Chicago Lawn library is still there, though I doubt its collection is as good these days as it used to be.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 10:37 AM (q3u5l)

188 The Germans dug into the Channel Islands like a tick. Hitler wasted a lot of resources on the islands that his obsession actually benefited the allies.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:38 AM (WNOcj)

189 And I call myself a copy editor.

*slinks off in shame*
Posted by: Weak Geek at May 31, 2026 10:12 AM (p/isN)

Uh, what's your rate?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 31, 2026 10:38 AM (1Ff7Z)

190 One nice thing about the Carson show is that he frequently had writers as guests (usually held for the last 20 minutes, but hey). I remember seeing Asimov there a few times. And Colin Turnbull, when The Mountain People came out.

Posted by: Just Some Guy at May 31, 2026 10:41 AM (q3u5l)

191
Show business seems to be such a cutthroat.Industry, populated by sharks at every turn

Hollywood portrays all executives as thieving bastards who would kill you over 10 cents because in Hollywood all executives are thieving bastards who would kill you over 10 cents.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 31, 2026 10:41 AM (HdYcL)

192 JSG and JM, we had a local chain of drugstores called "Katz & Besthoff," aka K & B. They were all over town in various sizes, some with a lunch counter. Besides the things you'd expect to find in a drugstore, they had a solid paperback section, where the latest hardboiled detective stories and thrillers appeared. I bought a lot of my Man From U.N.C.L.E. series at K & B as they popped up every few months. Also Whitfield & Roddenberry's famous The Making of Star Trek. A stop to check for new books at the K & B near my junior high, in downtown, and at the one in the big enclosed mall on the West Bank of the river were standard parts of my days.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:42 AM (wzUl9)

193 Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 31, 2026 10:41 AM (HdYcL)

The music industry was worse.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:43 AM (WNOcj)

194 California has lost 163 corporate HQs to other states in the last decade.

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:45 AM (WNOcj)

195 Isn't the queen a good sport!
Posted by: Bernaise

Didja hear about the May 26 palace coup that has cast out Queen Camilla and her family?

https://tinyurl.com/3hj8jt4c

(30 minute YT that is interesting but rather repetitive and provides more detail than many might wish.)

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Fat, Dumb, and Happy at May 31, 2026 10:46 AM (ndZc7)

196 Isn't that ironic that the Ayn Rand Institute is headquartered in CA?

Posted by: polynikes at May 31, 2026 10:47 AM (WNOcj)

197 JSG, I finished Goldman's Temple of Gold (I'd thought I'd read it, but I hadn't) and Soldier in the Rain. The former was a lot like Catcher in the Rye in some ways. The latter was very entertaining, partly because I dimly recall the movie with Jackie Gleason and Steve McQueen running on TV years ago -- great casting.

I haven't gotten to the play script or the other two novels yet. Thanks for sending them!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:47 AM (wzUl9)

198 God bless anyone who RE-reads the Silmarillion!

I have read it ONCE!

By contrast I have read the Bible cover to cover TWICE!

-SLV

Posted by: Shy Lurking Voter at May 31, 2026 10:49 AM (7kJyR)

199 Speaking of books, I just recently came into possession of a hardcover of what is easily the best book on drawing, it's written in Chinese but it is illustrated beautifully and so clear in it's instruction that you can follow it without having to read a single word.

It's got a decidedly Asian title: Special Training: Anime Human Body Structure Expression.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 31, 2026 10:50 AM (XV/Pl)

200 By the way, if you come to Da Swamp, the K & B drugstores are long gone. The family sold out to Rite-Aid (I believe) in the late '90s. Now Rite-Aid has vanished (along with Eckerd and Rexall), and all we have are a few higher-priced independents, CVS, and Walgreens -- none oriented toward books. They might have some magazines in a rack, but not much else.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2026 10:50 AM (wzUl9)

201 Recently read several series by Josh Kilen. They all started as bedtime stories for his son and then he published them. He covers superhero, fantasy, sci-fi, and magical realism genres. I had purchased the first novels in each about a decade ago and was happy to see he'd finished each of them since then.

Posted by: Polliwog the 'Ette at May 31, 2026 10:51 AM (lFFaq)

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